Badgers

A visit tonight to one of our local badger setts where we were very lucky to see 3 badgers. The action started almost straight away, when the badgers began their weekend cleaning and digging out. After half an hour they had everything spick and span and three of them eventually came out. These photos were taken in near darkness. A brilliant start to our weekend.

Surf Scoter, Filey

Very distant digiscoped pics of the male surf scoter off Filey Brigg. A new bird for Karen's list !

Full Moon

So pleased the clouds cleared to reveal tonight's full moon. It's amazing !

Rose-coloured Starling

The tree with the feeders in that it favoured for 5 days.

Wells, Norfolk. This bird definitely had the WOW factor! He has been around for 5 days now, always in the same tree that is filled with feeders with a bird bath beneath. He seems very content and not bothered at all by all the people and traffic. So glad he came down for a bath, he really went for it! A brilliant weekend so far...........now what shall we go see tomorrow?

Melodious Warbler, Notts

A short 20 mile hop into Nottinghamshire to see what was originally an Icterine Warbler. The bird sang from deep within the gorse, hardly breaking cover which was certainly not icterine behaviour. We had heard many of these in Poland and this one was certainly not singing as loud. We stood for well over 2 hours and this bird showed for approx. 10 seconds. Was no surprise later tonight when it changed into a Melodous Warbler on our pager. A new UK first for us and an excellent start to the weekend.

Midsummer Moon

A fantastic evening finished off with the midsummer moon and 4 nightjars.

Happy Solstice everyone x

Burnt-tip Orchids

A little piece of heaven right on our doorstep. It looks spectacular this year after all the rain. The landowner deserves a big thank you for not farming this field. Was very disappointed on our first visit earlier when we saw that many early purple orchids had been dug up and photographers had flattened huge patches of ground by laying down. Why do people have to ruin it for others?
This burnt-tip display is spectacular this year.

Badger

Finished the day off watching our local badgers. We only saw this female tonight. There was plenty of activity going on in the sett with chattering, yapping and yowling noises but if they came out, they didn't come our side. These photos were taken in near darkness. Just adore badgers, could sit out every night and watch them. The supporting cast included tawny and barn owl, and pipistrelle and noctule bats. Not bad for a Saturday night!